Stress Reduction
by Aussielover
Summary: Just a little chemistry between Pete Malloy and his girlfriend Jenny.


Quick Disclaimer: I don't claim to own the characters created in Adam-12. Thank you to Jack Webb for the shows creation and to the fine actors who made it so special.

Stress Reduction

Soft lights illuminate the tight area. Steam wafts throughout the small room. He stands with his face leaning into the hot spray of water. His hands rest against the golden-colored tile. He rolls his head under the waterfall with the purpose of washing away the troubles of the long day. The tension in his muscular frame begins to lessen as the water runs down from his head to his toes. The heat has a magical way of extracting the aches from every pore. After the suds drain away only his thoughts need to follow. With his eyes still closed, he suddenly feels two gentle hands reach around from behind to caress his chest. Her warm smooth body lightly presses against his. "Do you mind if I join you?" Jenny whispers into his ear before she gives a sweet kiss at the nape of his neck then follows with a nibble at his ear.

He takes in a couple deep breaths. He cracks open his eyes and glances over his shoulder at her beautiful face. He covers both of her small soft hands with his. "Not one bit."

She kisses gently along the back of his shoulder. "Hey, why don't you let me work out a few of these knots?" She slides out her hands from underneath his and glides over both of his shoulders. Her hands start from the top and work down. Her fingertips massage circles in his tight neck muscles. She kneads deep along his back resulting in a groan of pleasure from him.

"You're an angel," comes out in a whisper from Pete. He slowly turns around and faces her. As he looks deep into the dark blue eyes of hers, he says, "How did I get so lucky to find you?" He pulls her into a tight embrace and swings her around into the warm water raining down. She tilts back her face and hair into the wonderful cleansing water. Pete drinks in the sight of this gorgeous nude woman, then grabs each of her hands in his and holds them up against the shower wall. With unrestrained passion he gives a sensual lasting kiss. As his lips pull away a gasp escapes with her breath. Now both have their hearts racing and are breathing rapidly with an all-consuming desire for each other. The wet steamy moments that followed are sheer bliss.

The bathroom is filled with steam and the mirror is completely clouded up. As the two come out of the shower, Jenny wraps a large soft towel around her slender body and Pete does the same around his waist. She notices then that Pete has some purple bruising just above his towel on his right side.

Knowing Pete is often quiet about problems, Jenny decides to be a little subtle about her noticing. "Why don't you tell me about your day over dinner?"

As the two saunter into his bedroom to dress, he says, "So, this is what happens when I give you a spare key to my apartment?"

"I guess I was feeling a bit spontaneous tonight. You do remember we had a date scheduled?" She looks over her shoulder at him before she gathers up her clothes from the bed.

"Don't get me wrong. That was the perfect surprise." Pete pulls on some khaki slacks as he asks, "What are you hungry for?" Just as Pete is saying this, he smells something wonderful.

"Oh, I put in a small pan of lasagna in the oven when I got here. I thought a quiet dinner at home sounded good. I hope you don't mind."

"You must be a mind reader." He leans over to catch another quick kiss from her. "I couldn't have dreamed up a better evening myself." Pete continues to button up his pale yellow short-sleeve shirt. Jenny, in the meantime, pulls on her baby blue short-sleeve knit sweater with a pair of navy hip-hugging denims. The two now fully dressed walk to the kitchen.

"How about a glass of wine or a beer, Pete?" Jenny offers with a wink.

"I can't refuse a pretty girl. A glass of wine would be great." She pours a glass and hands it over to Pete, then fills one for herself.

"It will be a few more minutes until dinner is ready. Why don't you sit down and relax for a minute while I set the table?"

"I could get use to this very easily." Pete says as he meanders into the living room and sits down on one end of the couch. Pete half shouts to Jenny, "What were you up to today?"

Between the jingling of the silverware and the sound of the dishes being pulled out Jenny answers with, "I worked at the stable this morning."

"Don't they have someone else for that job yet?"

"No, they still don't have a replacement for Dewayne yet." Jenny says, as she joins Pete on the couch sipping at her own glass of wine.

"I hope they don't take advantage of your willingness to help there," Pete says with a tinge of worry in his voice.

"You know I love working around the horses. I really don't mind at all. Besides, I haven't heard a peep from Dewayne for over two months now."

"Just remember, beautiful, if he tries to contact you again, you call me right away."

"Yes, yes, dear. Stop worrying so much. Back to my day, after working at the stable Sadie and I went for a nice hike, then finished the afternoon with some time in the kitchen. You know, it takes a little time to create a masterpiece, my mom always said."

"Speaking of Sadie, why didn't you bring her along?"

"She was out with me most of the day. I figured I would only be here for a few hours so I left her home tonight."

Pete's face expresses his disappointment, "Only here a few hours, huh?"

"Yes, I thought you have to work in the morning."

"I do, but I'm a big boy. I can handle staying up late." Pete slides closer to Jenny on the couch.

Jenny sits down her wine glass then grabs a hold of Pete's free hand. "So tell me about your day, handsome."

"Oh, there's not that much to tell." Pete feigns ignorance.

"You're a police officer. I'm sure something exciting happened today."

"I don't know if exciting would be the word for it."

"No matter if it's exciting or boring, I want to know about you." Jenny squeezes gently his hand sending a quiet message of her love for him. "Please go on."

Pete finally relinquishes and begins to share the rundown of his day. "Well, Jim and I are on day watch this week as you know. We started off the morning with a couple simple traffic violations. They were pretty minor issues as you can imagine. Later in the morning we pursued a suspect in a stolen car. Fortunately, the suspect made a bad choice and headed down a dead-end street and we apprehended him without any problems. The day got a little more interesting in the afternoon." Just as Pete was continuing the kitchen timer goes off.

"Excuse me, Pete. Hold that thought for a moment. Let me get dinner on the table and you can finish your story." Jenny gets up and heads to the kitchen.

Pete starts to follow, but pauses for just a second when the soreness in his midsection sends a painful twinge through his abdomen when he bends to get up.

_I guess I have one little reminder of the day._ Pete instinctively wraps his arm over his bruised abdomen. He carries his wine glass over to the table.

Jenny comes back out carrying a basket of bread and a salad bowl. "Have a seat."

"Can I help you with something?" Pete asks with a genuine smile.

"Oh, can you light the candles for me, please?"

"Sure can." Pete slowly this time reaches down to the lower shelf of the coffee table for some matches then lights up the two long white candles in the center of the table.

A minute later Jenny brings out the steaming hot casserole of lasagna and places it on a hot pad. "Do you need anymore wine, Pete?"

"That would be great. This smells wonderful." Pete breathes in a big breath of the garlic and basil laced aroma.

"Hopefully, it will taste as good as it smells." Jenny says with some modesty then she pours a little more wine and sets the bottle down on the table.

"Your cooking has never let me down yet. Matter of fact, I think I have put on five pounds since we started dating." He gently pats at his midsection, but cringes just a bit as he touches his sore stomach.

"I don't know about that." She gives Pete a once over look. _You look like one healthy man to me. Actually a really sexy one at that…not now Jenny! _Jenny takes a seat. "Now, Pete, please go on with your day." Jenny begins dishing out the lasagna as she listens intently.

"Well, our next call was a 415." Pete realizes that he's talking in police codes. "I mean a minor disturbance was reported in a middle-class neighborhood. The house was a nice ranch style home in good condition. Sitting out front were a pair of vehicles in pretty bad shape from a beat up VW van to another rundown sedan. When Jim and I walked up to the house we could hear rock music blaring from inside even with the windows all closed. We knocked on the door, but no one answered. After some more aggressive knocking, a man came to the door and just cracked it open. He was wearing jeans, a baggie white shirt, and a brown vest. He had long brown hair and two or three strands of beads were hanging from his neck. He seemed startled by our presence and tried to close the door on us. Jim conveniently placed his foot in the doorway to prevent it from being shut. We took a moment to explain the complaint about the noise. The man's shoulders relaxed and he immediately apologized then promised to turn down the music. But, as he was closing the door, both Jim and I got a good whiff of marijuana coming from inside. Jim pressed his foot forward again to stop it from shutting totally. We entered the premises by force. The living room was fairly dark even in the early afternoon with all the blinds drawn. The large room had a hallway to the left that probably led to some bedrooms and to the right was the kitchen with a back door at the rear. The shocked doorman just stood there and sitting on a couch and raggedy loveseat were three more men. Spread across the center coffee table was an assortment of drug paraphernalia from pills to a still smoking pipe."

Jenny interrupts, "Oh my God. This doesn't feel like a safe place to be." She has become so caught up in the story that she hasn't even taken a bite of lasagna.

"Well, to be honest, this isn't a great predicament to be in. Because of the type of call, we hadn't radioed in for any backup. So, Jim and I were out numbered two to one. We didn't know the mental state of these men with the drugs involved either."

"So what happened next?" Jenny inquires.

"At first, all the men seem startled. A couple were being loud and obnoxious, then they all scattered at once. Two raced toward the back door then Jim cut them off waving his nightstick as a sign of force. Our doorman tried to push past me at the front door, but I delivered him back into the living room and helped him sit back down on the couch. Jim watched over them for a minute while I headed down the hallway to find the last man. I found him trying to climb out of the bathroom window with one leg out and the other still inside. I helped him back to the living room where we patted down each one for a weapon. With only two sets of handcuffs we cuffed each man to another, and then I sent Jim to call the station from the kitchen phone for some backup while I kept an eye on them. In the short time he was gone, the men cuffed closest to me started arguing. As things started to get out of hand, I had to step in. Before I knew it, one of the men grabbed a nearby lamp and hauled off and hit me in the gut with the base. It knocked the wind out of me for a second. Jim came running back into the room as the commotion stirred up some noise. We got control of the situation again before the next unit arrived five minutes later. The rest of the afternoon was spent processing the four men at the station."

"What about you? Did you get hurt? Did you go to the hospital?" Jenny rambles off quickly.

"After we finished the report, Mac demanded that I get checked out. It turned out to be a nasty bruise and nothing more, like I thought."

"It sounds like you were lucky, Pete. How are you feeling now?"

"After that nice hot shower and this grand meal, I couldn't be better."

"That's good to here, but just in case I want you to take it easy for the rest of the night. I'll take care of the dishes, and you need to put your feet up."

"Hey, you won't get a big argument from me." The two finish eating dinner leisurely then Jenny busies herself in the kitchen cleaning up. Before long, she strolls into the living room to find Pete stretched out on the couch and dozing. She kneels down beside him and just takes in the moment watching him in a peaceful sleep.

In a whisper, "Hey, handsome. I hate to wake you, but I should get going." Jenny softly caresses his cheek and sweeps a blond lock of hair away from his eyes. Pete's eyes crack open. He reaches up and grabs a hold of her hand then brings it to his lips for a tender kiss.

"Thanks again, beautiful, for the wonderful dinner and everything else. Are you sure you have to leave?"

"I would love to curl up with you and stay, but I have to go. You need a good night's sleep and Sadie would wonder what happened to me."

"Be sure to bring her along next time and we won't have this problem. Maybe we should even consider consolidating our housing." Their eyes quickly meet.

"Slow down there, mister. That sounds like a very serious step."

Pete leans up onto his elbows and asks, "Will you consider it?"

Jenny leans in for a quick kiss goodnight. "Ok, I'll think about it."

"Good. Beautiful, let me walk you out to your car."

Pete slowly rises and the two walk hand in hand out to her jeep. As Jenny climbs in she says, "Have a good day tomorrow and steer clear of any moving lamps." A grin creeps across her face. "Goodnight, handsome."

Pete turns to head up his apartment stairs and can't help, but laugh. "She is quite a girl, alright."


End file.
